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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How much would you pay for
an outdoor cermony location
Background info
- located at a nature center
- weddings weren't allowed previously, so setting would be unique
- open to public during this time, but foot traffic wouldn't be high - Edit the grounda are open, however the building normally isn't open, so staff would have to be brought in just for this event.
- cermony to be held in gazebo
- AV provided
- chairs for up to 150 to be provided (or 75 if reception will be held there)
- located in rual setting - not used to 'big city prices' but yet at same time options are limited
- four hour time block
- back up location provided in case of rain.
Re: How much would you pay for
I would pay $300 MAX. I'm cheap though and for my outdoor ceremony, all I had to pay for was chair rental ($1.50 per chair). It's kind of the reason I had an outdoor ceremony (we're not members of a church).
can I ask where you had your cermony at? How did you get away with NO rental fee at all?
$500?
I'm really not sure. With my wedding so long ago, I feel out of the loop when it comes to current going rates - and I don't remember how much I paid for things, either. So maybe I'm not the best person to answer this.
I'd say $500 too. That is assuming that the staff you are talking about bringing in is only there to open the building, set up, clean up, and close the building. If they were doing more than that, I'd expect to pay more.
Is this an idea you are working on that you came up with? I like it!
Sooo not my idea!! I've been fighting it for years. I don't think we will be able to rent it for the money that we would need to in order to make money.
For the main person it would take about 2-3 hour of meeting time with the client ahead of time - inital meeting, planing meeting, rehersal, and about 6-7 hours the day of for a 4 hour rental. They would have to be there early to set up, be there to greet the bride, assist, and stay after to clean up.
We would also need a 2nd staff person in the building during the event to act as a back up, man front desk, assist with directing guests and there in case of emergency. In all it would be about 15-18 hours of staff time.
We would have to rent the chairs from a rental company.
We want to find a price that isn't so cheap that we are losing money or renting it every weekend, because we don't want to compete with our own events, nor do we want to be only for those with lots of money.
All good points. I forgot about chair rental and the pre-meeting time, etc. I agree, price it at a premium so that you are making the profit you want and it won't happen very often.
Just an idea that hit me while I was typing this - could be dumb but I'll throw it out there: You know at Tiger Stadium how they have all of the bricks with people's names in front? Could you also put their name in some sort of permanent display so that it would forever be memorialized that they got married there and as a "donor" or something to that effect?
The backup location is the key for me. I didn't get married outside (or in MI, for that matter), but my location was in the middle of nowhere and had an outside location. My location charged (when I booked in 2005) $500 for the outside location and an additional $500 if you wanted the inside location as a backup. There was an additional charge for the reception hall. Max capacity was around 200.
Does your max capacity go down for the inside backup location? That might make a difference...it's not really a backup location if they invite 150, then it rains, and only 75 can fit inside (that's not really your problem, but it's something to consider in the advertising).
Quail Ridge Golf Club in Ada. It wasn't anything super fancy, but it was a nice setting IMO. I couldn't have asked for anything more. We probably had the ceremony free because we had our reception there also, where we obviously spend some $$. We had to pay for chair rental, and they provided the "arch" thing (it wasn't arched at all, kinda hard to explain). I'm not sure if they would do just a ceremony, but it's worth calling about. You never know! Plus their golf course is AMAZING for pictures. Other courses charge you for having a ceremony on their grounds (Wallinwood wanted $1000 or something crazy).
After reading your update, I can be completely honest. My first reaction was to say you could charge $1500, but I scaled it back to $1000 after seeing $300 and $500 (which really surprised me). Holding an event is expensive - rural or in the city. Like I said, let those brides and grooms try to line their own ceremony up with all of those things, and have someone work it to make sure things go seamless that day. It's not going to be any cheaper. Just my two cents.
When I was calling around for my wedding in 2007, the churches were charging $1500 back then. Granted, those were "city" churches, but still, that was 2007. . .
Our reception was at a county park. It was $400 for 5 hours. But there was no meeting with staff or prep on their side (aside from cashing the check and unlocking the door). We made sure we left the building clean, but I'm sure they had a staff member go through after too.
It sounds like you're considering offering a higher level of planning.
Our church was much more expensive.
I think if you're offering it as a ceremony and reception site, you could safely start at $1000.
I proposed three different price levels
Elopement package - up to 10 guests, no set up, two-hour time block. for $350 (or was it $500). We actually get a lot of requests for this, people just want a simple cermony. This could be held inside around the fireplace or outdoors.
Ceremony up to 50 people - standing only for 3 hours for $750. Use of (to be built) gazebo additional $100
Ceremony for up to 150 guests with chairs $1200
I think this sounds perfect.
I'm curious, what would be included in the $1200 package? Just chair set up and actual use of the space? Does this include A/V? Decor set up? I ask because $1200 sounds like a total rip off if it's just chairs and space.
ETA: I'm dumb and you're proposing $1200 for what's in the original post. Ack. I need to go home!
No problem Wop.
It is a bit high, but again this isn't part of our daily operations so everything is being done special for that wedding.
I'm jsut so glad this won't be part of my job. ha ha.
Sorry if this has been brought up or discussed previously, but:
Who holds the insurance for the event (facility or does renter have to secure their own)? Is alcohol allowed on the premise?
Those were to significant (limiting) factors when the nature center I worked at started to explore renting out their facility. For just a ceremony it is slightly less of an issue, but if receptions are going to be there, the alcohol thing has to be stated way up front. Also security deposit. The insurance issue gets to be a major hassle if alcohol is an option.
To add a rider onto the center's policy was really expensive & rental rates had to be much higher than we'd intended. However, requiring B&G's to secure their own insurance was a major turn off to them and they'd seek out other facilities instead.